Overheard

Updated March 2, 2011 8:04 p.m. ET

Worries about China's growing appetite for mining acquisitions may be overblown. PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates $113 billion's worth of mining mergers and acquisitions were done globally in 2010. Acquisitions by Chinese companies totaled not quite $12 billion, or just more than 10% of the total.

Acquirers from Canada, the U.S. and Australia were each more active. Indeed, Rio Tinto and Xstrata—both British-based—together have bought...